An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Technopolis, Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium on 03 Janurary. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 1035 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible over eastern Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Audio from the contact should also be available via the AMSAT conference on EchoLink and via the 9010 Discovery reflector on IRLP. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

December 30th

A 12-year-old girl from Moscow will see her artwork launch to space in March 2009 as the winner of an international contest to design an insignia for the next cosmonaut crew.

Anna Chibiskova was honored on Monday at a ceremony held at Russia's mission control center outside Moscow, where her painting of a pair of hands supporting the Earth was revealed as the basis for the Soyuz TMA-14 crew's mission patch. Her art will be embroidered and sewn onto the spacesuits that the three cosmonauts will wear during their March 25 launch to the International Space Station.

"Thank you for your attention to the creation of our logo," said Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka before announcing Chibiskova as the winner. "We managed to see the best of more than 150 drawings, each of which is worthy of victory."